05-28-2019, 05:49 PM
That only explains why we were paired up with those three in the regional. It doesn't explain why we were under-seeded (unless the committee wanted it to look not quite as bad that they had such highly ranked teams playing together). It certainly doesn't explain why we were paired with Mississippi State (#4 by RPI) in the regionals, or awarded MSU the 4 seed and moved Georgia and Arkansas down 1. The committee could have awarded us the 10 seed that our RPI would have predicted and shipped us to Louisville. Or it could have given us a 9 seed and sent us to Texas Tech. Or (gasp) it could have recognized that having gotten a really tough regional, that it might make it up by hosting the super regional.
Or it could have shipped #34 ranked (by RPI) Fresno State to be the third seed at UCLA and sent us #77 Loyola Marymount, to make up for the fact that we are getting #21 Santa Barbara and they are getting #32 Baylor (I recognize that LMU is in UCLA's backyard, but Fresno is almost equidistant, and Santa Barbara is certainly closer to LA than to Stanford, while it's a wash for Baylor).
BC
Or it could have shipped #34 ranked (by RPI) Fresno State to be the third seed at UCLA and sent us #77 Loyola Marymount, to make up for the fact that we are getting #21 Santa Barbara and they are getting #32 Baylor (I recognize that LMU is in UCLA's backyard, but Fresno is almost equidistant, and Santa Barbara is certainly closer to LA than to Stanford, while it's a wash for Baylor).
BC